MUMBAI: For a year that has lighter load of marquee cricket and ad revenue forecast lower than 2011, the first six months have been unusually hectic and dramatic. Star took independent charge of sports broadcasting after News Corp bought out Disney?s stake in ESPN Star Sports, ending a 16-year-old joint venture company in Asia where both the media conglomerates held equal stake. Multi Screen Media (MSM) launched its maiden sports channel ?Six? while Zee introduced India?s first golf channel at a monthly price of Rs 200 a subscriber. Neo walked out of cricket and rebranded Neo Cricket as Neo Prime.

Beyond cricket, broadcasters have tapped into other sports with Neo debuting its hockey league in partnership with Indian Hockey Federation. The first six months, however, have not been easy for sporting leagues.

Cricket?s hottest property got its first reality check after the initial years of hype. The Indian Premier League (IPL) scored lower ratings and earned less advertising revenues than last year, though they are significantly higher than any other cricketing property in the Indian marketplace. Market estimates peg the sports broadcasting ad revenue at Rs 8.5-9 billion in the first six months of the year. With comparatively weaker ad revenue potential for the remaining six months, the early year forecast of ad revenue touching Rs 17 billion in 2012 is highly unlikely.

Star, left free from Disney, will start its aggressive play in sports broadcasting in India. It has already bagged the six-year BCCI rights till 2018 for a whopping Rs 38.51 billion, translating into Rs 401.154 million per match, much higher than what Nimbus had to pay (Rs 312.50 million a match). This squeezed out MSM who had bid Rs 37 billion.

MSM?s ?Six? will fight in the sports broadcasting arena with Ultimate Fighting Championship as its prime property till it telecasts the IPL next year.

With four sports broadcasting companies in the fray, Zee-controlled Ten Sports has renewed the rights for two cricket boards. Cricket South Africa (CSA) rights has come for $180 million and Zimbabwe for $20 million (both for eight years). The task will be to get the other three cricket boards ? Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies.

Zee is also looking at a varied sports channel offering. Ten Golf, positioned premium, is looking at mopping up 500,000 subscribers in three years. Says Zee business head Sports Atul Pande, "There will be a move towards segmentation. We want to be the number one channel in Golf in South Asia."

The exit of cricket has meant that Neo would put its focus on sports like soccer, hockey and tennis. Neo had to also rework on its three-year distribution deal (from 1 September 2010) with TheOneAlliance aborting it and opting for a fresh pact valid for one year.

 LodestarUN COO Anamika Mehta believes that it will be difficult for Neo, whicht was built on the back of India cricket, to scale up. "India is dominated by cricket. While acquisition costs of other sports are low, the revenue is also low as there is only so much attention that other sports will get from advertisers. The channels will also be event centric. There are a limited number of non cricket sporting events that get traction. The Indian cricket team on the other hand plays for around 200 days in the year," she says.

Nimbus kick-started the World Series Hockey (WSH) while Hockey India has announced another league, the first edition of which will take place next year.

According to Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra, the FIH has given clearance for one month next year during which no international event will be held. "This has been done so that top players like Jamie Dwyer and Teun de Nooijer are free from any international engagements."

Mehta believes the existence of two hockey league tournaments will result in fragmentation. "Even one league will find the going difficult. This is a long term play but the start has not been encouraging. For hockey to be brought back, efforts have to be made at the grassroots level. Then only can the interest levels grow. Leagues in different sports are obviously buoyed by the success of the IPL. But it will not be easy for them as it was for the IPL as there is a lack of familiarity in India for some of these sports," she says.

The leagues in other sports is yet to make an impact. In soccer, the i-League clubs are not happy with the way IMG Reliance, the AIFF?s commercial partner, is managing it as it has yet to come out with a blueprint for its development. The different clubs have, thus, formed the ?i-League Professional Football Clubs Association?.

"Every good league in the world is a separate entity in which the clubs are the stakeholders. We want to improve the standard of football in India and we are ready to do everything from our end as well", says the organisation?s general secretary Chirag Tanna.

The ambitious motorsports league that was planned by Machdar Motrosports has been postponed till next year. The i1 Super Series league has been rescheduled to 2013 as the venue in Delhi was not available.

The Elite Football League of India (EFLI), which aims to bring American football to India, has been preponed and will take place this month in Sri Lanka. It has teams from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

So which other sport outside cricket is growing in India? ?Soccer is growing among the youth. The Euro 2012 did well this year,? points out Mehta.

The Olympics is expected to fare better this year compared to its earlier edition of 2008. "It will fare better this year. There are two reasons for this. The first is that unlike Doordarshan, ESPN Star Sports will be airing it. So there will be a concerted marketing push and the broadcast will be more professionally managed. The other reason is that there are more sports where India can win medals in. You have sports like boxing, wrestling, shooting and badminton, although tennis could be a disaster. It is not like the old days where the only medal hope was in hockey. I expect a big spike in ratings on those days when India wins a medal," says Mehta.

How big the impact of economic slowdown be on the sports genre? Says Mehta, ?There is a mood of caution but it is not a doomsday scenario. Some sectors like financial services and auto will cut back. If you look at the IPL, consumer durables did not come back in a big way.?

MUMBAI: Taj Television has announced that Ten Cricket, Ten Sports and Ten HD will do a live telecast of one of the Twenty20 matches between South Africa and India to be played on 30 March in Johannesburg.

The two matches, an annual affair, is being played to mark the 150 years of collaboration between the two countries and the cup has been named as ?The Friendship Cup?.

In the year 2011, South Africa played a Twenty20 against India at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban as a farewell for Makhaya Ntini. This year South African all rounder Jacques Kallis will be honoured during this match.

Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande said, ? With Friendship Cup becoming an annual affair this encounter will be a high octane match with both team vying for this edition of Friendship Cup. TEN Channels will be bringing all the action Live and exclusive for viewers in India.?

MUMBAI: Ten Golf, India?s first golf dedicated channel, has entered into a licensing agreement with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution for the exclusive basic cable rights in India to a slate of original programming from the Golf Channel in the U.S.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ten Golf will be showcasing 400 hours of golf programming, including series and news, showcased as a Golf Channel branded block. The channel will offer golf-related titles across a range of genres: Entertainment, News & Analysis, Instruction and Travel.

In addition to the Golf Channel branded block of programming from NBCUniversal, Ten Golf will also air a collection of popular golf events, including PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, European Tour, and WGC HSBC Champions Tournament.

Commenting on the deal, Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande said, "We are proud to announce this landmark content deal with NBCUniversal. This deal underscores our commitment to deliver high quality golf programming for our viewers in India and sub continent. It will offer unmatched and pioneering golf entertainment to audiences in India and across Indian subcontinent."

Pande also said that the channel was in talks with golf rights holders to bring further quality golf properties for viewers and was working with different stakeholders to create a strong platform.

"We are entering into content deals with leading golf rights holders in the near term, providing the viewers with the very best of top quality Golf Content and a viewing experience like never before. Ten Golf is working with all the major stakeholders in golf, including events partners, sponsors and golf courses and golf clubs across the sub-continent to create a formidable golf platform," Pande added.

Ten Golf had entered into a three-year partnership with PGTI to televise the Indian Tour. It also has the rights for Asian Tour, European Tour, US PGA Championship, Ryder Cup and LET, among others.

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of acquiring the PGTI and LPGA broadcast rights, Taj Television?s soon-to-be-launched golf channel Ten Golf has acquired the broadcast rights for Asian Tour while renewing European Tour rights both for the period of six years from 2013-18.

ESPN Star Sports earlier had the broadcast rights for the Asian Tour.

As part of the deal, Taj TV will have rights to air live and exclusive coverage of European Tour and Asian Tour events. Ten Golf will telecast around 20 live events of Asian Tour and 30 live events of the European Tour in 2013, which will add up to 200 days of live golf between these two tours.

Taj Television CEO Atul Pande said, ?As we continue to expand our content, we?re delighted to add two of the most prestigious tours to our impressive line-up of golf properties. Our acquisition of the long term rights is an indication of our interest and commitment in bringing high quality golf to Indian audiences.?

From the Asian Tour, all tournaments from the Asian Tour including the tournaments which are co-sanctioned between the Asian Tour and the European Tour, the WGC-HSBC Championship, the Asian Tour Golf Show and event highlights will be televised.

Asian Tour Senior Director of Commercial and TV Eric Lynge said, ?The Asian Tour is thrilled with this new partnership with Ten Sports. The appeal of the Asian Tour has grown tremendously in India especially with the success of Order of Merit winners Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa over the years and many other young and exciting Indian golfers such as Gaganjeet Bhullar, Himmat Rai and Anirban Lahiri have also won on the Asian Tour in recent times."

Ten will telecast all European Tour tournaments live besides the highlights. Additionally, it will also showcase ?European Tour Weekly? a magazine show. Highlight programmes of the European Seniors Tour, European Challenge Tour events and ?The Challenge? magazine show will be televised.

"With India?s depth in the game and the Tour?s cosmopolitan appeal where our membership ranges from over 30 countries, we are confident viewers of Ten Golf will be treated to the very best of Asian golf over the coming years,? European Tour Director of Broadcasting and New Media Mark Lichtenhein said.

?We?re delighted to extend our relationship with Ten Sports for a further 6 years and we are excited to be central to the development of Ten Golf, India?s first golf channel. We believe that there is enormous potential for golf in India particularly following its reintroduction as an Olympic sport in 2016.?

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Zeel) is gearing up to launch a golf dedicated channel next month and has signed a three-year exclusive partnership deal with Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), the official sanctioning body of professional golf in India.

Ten Golf will become India?s first exclusive golf channel. The deal provides Ten Golf with the broadcasting rights for all PGTI-sanctioned tournaments within and outside the country from 2012 - 2014.

Announcing the partnership, PGTI Director Padamjit Sandhu said, "Professional golf in India has had strong positive growth over the last five years under PGTI. We are today at a stage where it is important for us to showcase the depth of Indian talent and their achievements with the support of a professional electronic medium. To further grow golf, and project the opportunities and the potential the sport has, it is important to have a strong broadcast partner. With Ten Golf we see strong synergies, and are confident that their expertise, knowledge and bandwidth will substantially help take Indian golf to the next level."

Taj Television India CEO Atul Pande said, "Our sports broadcast strategy of building committed viewers, in specific sports, has led to the idea of the golf channel - Ten Golf. Our tie up with PGTI will help in strengthing the Indian Tour. We will be working closely with Asian Tour and European Tour to bring world class golf action for viewers in India and the subcontinent."

It will broadcast a weekly show titled "Inside the PGTI". This show will highlight the best golfing action from PGTI events and will feature golfers on the PGTI circuit. The sports channel will also air special promos and fillers based on Indian golfers and the PGTI tour.

Ten Golf will be the latest addition to the bouquet of products offered by Taj Television Limited, whose portfolio includes Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action+, Ten HD. Ten bouquet of channel reaches 100 million households across India, the company said.